China has slammed a damning United Nations human rights assessment of Xinjiang after the document concluded Beijing’s actions “may constitute international crimes” against humanity.
In a statement published on Thursday, Liu Yuyin, a spokesman for the Chinese mission at the UN, said the report was “pure farce” and a “politicised document” plotted by anti-China forces who used human rights as a political tool to smear and slander teh country.
“The so-called ‘assessment’, based on presumption of guilt, uses disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces as its main sources,” stated Liu’s written remark.
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Liu said the report maliciously distorted China’s laws and policies as well as its counterterrorism efforts while exposing deep-rooted bias against, and ignorance of, China.
“The attempt of some Western countries and anti-China forces to use UN bodies to manipulate Xinjiang-related issues is doomed to fail,” he said.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released an assessment report late on Wednesday about human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
The report, which was released on the last day of Michelle Bachelet’s tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, came at a very sensitive time for Beijing, which will hold the Communist Party’s five-yearly party congress in mid-October.
The report linked Beijing’s employment policies to forced labour, said it found evidence of torture in detention camps that the Chinese government describes as vocational training centres, and pointed to “unusual” and “coercive” government actions leading to a starkly plunging birth rate in the far western Chinese region.
The report accuses Beijing of “coercive family planning policies enforced by strict measures, such as fines, referrals and threats of referral to [Vocational Education and Training Centres] or other detention facilities, in breach of the reproductive rights during the period 2017-2019”.
It recommended “urgent action” by the Chinese government, the UN and the “international community more broadly” to address the human rights situation in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of operating a repressive system in which more than 1 million Uygurs and other ethnic Muslims are detained.
The report pointed to the vocational training centres described by the Chinese government appearing as “discriminatory in nature or effect” and “marked by patterns of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
In the statement on Thursday by China’s permanent mission to the UN, Liu also urged the OHCHR to respect “objective facts and the human rights development path” chosen by each nation “in light of its own reality”.
“We urge the OHCHR to immediately change course, stand on the side of equity and justice, [and] be truly committed to promoting and protecting the human rights of all peoples,” Liu said.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Xinjiang exports to US hit two-year high despite Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act taking effect
- Xi Jinping tells UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet China doesn’t need ‘patronising’ lectures about its record
- China to allow Turkish delegation to come to Xinjiang 2 months after UN human rights chief’s visit
- Xinjiang: UN report finds it ‘reasonable to conclude’ forced labour is occurring in autonomous region
- Respect Uygur rights, 43 countries urge China at United Nations
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